witch hunt
by citrusdoggo
Summary: this is an au in a small village in the early 1600s. This fic ships diakko, just sayin'. I'm also including various other characters from the show as towns people but probably not all of them.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! This is my first fanfiction that I've actually got an idea where I'm going with so I might even finish it *gasp*. So to be clear if I didn't explain it properly in the description thing this fic is set in a small village in the early 1600s (specifically July 1612) but I'm not a history nerd so don't get mad at me if it's not accurate to the time, I tried okay? Diana and Akko are maybe a few years older than in the anime. Diana is secretly a witch, Akko is a native to the village who has a reputation for being late, clumsy, and other such things. And they're just about to meet.**

"whaah!" Akko shouts crashing into someone who happened to be walking the wrong way at the wrong time. Being used to this from her countless experiences of crashing into people all the time she quickly stands up, brushing dust from her dress.

"sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." she smiles, then holds out her hand, "do you want some help?"

the girl takes her hand and stands up. Now able to see her properly Akko realises this girl isn't from this town and proceeds to take some mental notes of her appearance: the girl was About the same age as she was, but quite a bit taller, her hair was platinum blonde in waves to her shoulders, wearing a blue summer dress that complemented her blue eyes nicely.

"hmm I don't think I've seen you before, I'm Akko" she keeps her tone friendly, introducing herself, after all you only get one chance at a first impression.

"I'm Diana, I moved here yesterday" she replies, her voice not as loud as Akko's but still clear.

"where were you going to just now?"

"I.. was going to read outside somewhere it's such a pleasant day"

"oh, so you don't go to church then" Akko inquires with a glare.

"w-wait it's Sunday? I wasn't able to keep track when I was travelling, I suppose we could walk down there together since we're here" she tries to keep the panic out her voice _oh god_ she thinks _I already seem suspicious and it's only day 1._

"sounds great!" she says putting a smile back on as they turn to walk (quite swiftly since they're going to be late if they don't get a move on) to the church.

The day at church was quite typical, Priest Hanbridge read out a few sections of the bible while the children went in different room to do Sunday school. Akko missed Sunday school, it was a lot more fun than regular church, though she knew better than to complain. But since she had heard the stories seemingly a million times and new a good deal of them word for word she often tuned it out to think about other things instead, today she spent quite a while thinking about the girl. New comers were a rare occurrence in this town, most of the towns people had been born and raised there and most people stayed there for life, this made Diana quite interesting. Akko wondered if Diana was disorganised like herself since she didn't even know what day of the week it was, or maybe her first impression was miles out from who she normally was and will change when she feels more at home. Either way Akko wanted to know more about her.

After church was over the villagers all talked as they filed out of the church. Normally Akko would race (in the most orderly manner she could) to get out before the crowd blocked the entrance forcing her to squeeze through everyone, but today Akko had a different goal, instead of getting home, She wanted to get to know Diana, and since Diana was waiting to leave she did too. Once the majority of the congregation was gone Diana stood up and headed to the exit, followed by Akko, and once outside Akko decided to start a conversation with her.

"Hi!" she greeted

"hello"

"so uh, you're new here then?"

"that is correct"

"w-we don't really get new people here, but I want to get to know you." she explains

"oh, I see. I'd be glad to talk" Diana responds cheerfully, though really she was hoping to keep interaction minimal, at least for a few weeks.

"Great! I'm Akko by the way!"

"ahh yes, I believe you told me before."

"oh did I?" _no no no I messed up already now she won't want to talk to me_

"shall we find a place to sit and talk further?" she offers, finding the brunette villager quite an interesting character.

Akko mentally sighs seeing that her mess up had been taken as a joke.

"yes I'd like that, there's a nice clearing near the edge of the forest that I like, shall we go there?"

"sounds perfect"

"great! Its just this way" she says leading them down the path that leads to the forest. "so where've you come from?"

"Lancaster, it's north of here"

"wait I've heard about there. There's word around town about witch trials, I'm not sure I believe it, at least half the gossip here is rubbish because this town rarely has anything interesting going on we tend to either talk about other places getting most of our information from delivery people,or make something up."

"oh the witch trials are happening, in about a months thime, there's a lot of talk about it up there. It's part of why I moved, it gets rather tiring hearing the same thing all the time"

"aha we've arrived!" they arrive at a clearing in the oak woods, mostly obscured by bushes. The clearing was quite pretty, the ground being covered in medium length grass that was dotted with various pretty wild flowers, and at the edge, in front of the bushes, there were clusters of bluebells.

"sun or shade?"

"huh?"

"where shall we sit?"

"oh, in the shade, I burn easily"

"okay!" she walks to a spot in the shade and sits on the grass, smiling as she pats the spot beside her to invite Diana to sit beside her, which she does.

"so what do you like about this place then?" the blonde asks.

"well the grass it the perfect length for one, long enough that it's comfy to sit on, but not so long that you have to wade though it, though it is fun to play in fields of long grass too! You lie down and you're suddenly invisible! But it's impossible to move in thoe fields and even harder to do so without tripping over all the time." she rambles "but my favourite thing is that this clearing attracts the forest animals like rabbits and mice! Sometimes I can pick them up and stroke them and they're soooo soft, and cute. there's one brown rabbit which is definitely my favourite, he has such a funny face but in a cute rabbit way"

Diana enjoys the way Akko's face lights up when she talks about the things she likes.

"I had some pet rabbits where I used to live" Diana says

"woahhh that's so cool! What were they called? Do you have more pets? Can I see them?"

"there was a white one with black patches called patch, and the other one was white called snowy, very original naming I know," she jokes "and I also had a horse, brown with white socks, called Toby. Unfortunately I left them with my aunt when I moved."

"you had a _horse?_ only rich people have those! What would make someone like that come to such a shoddy village as this?"

 _crap what do I say?_

"uhh... I.. I didn't really like it there, I wanted to try something new, having everything for granted gets boring after a while" _what a lousy excuse! she's gonna see through this so fast._

"oh that's kinda cool! I wanna hear more but I just remembered need to get back home so I'll see you round I guess?" she tells the blonde while she stands up.

"yeah I think I'll stay here for now but I'd love to talk more with you, you seem really interesting," Diana complements her, causing the brunette to blush a little.

"th-thanks, you too. Anyway gotta go, see ya!" she walks merrily away.

Diana sighs in relief _how the hell did I manage that?_ She thinks lying back on the grass completely understanding the energetic brunettes love of this place, its comfortable and secluded, seemed ideal for doing anything away from the village. she sat there for a while before she too headed home.


	2. Chapter 2

**I have some stuff planned but I'm not ready for it yet so have some diakko fluff in the meantime I guess. This chapters set a few days after the first one. Also since I don't want to awkwardly try to drop it in I decided Akko is an apprentice dressmaker but I probably won't go into it I was just felt like I needed to give her a job.**

It was late afternoon and the sun was just about to set, the sky turning a soft orange colour around the horizon. Akko was wondering in the hilly moors just outside of town, as she often enjoyed doing after a working day, being cramped up in a small building getting pricked by needles wasn't her idea of fun, she much preferred being outside, the breeze on her face and grass under her feet just let her relax. And one of her favourite things was that with non of the other villagers around to judge her, she felt truly free, able to whatever she wanted.

And right now she wanted to run. She ran up and down hills smiling for ages until she ran out of breath and collapsed on the slope of one of the hills and, breathing heavily, she turned onto her back to face the orange glow that was beginning to crawl into the clouds. That was another great thing about the moors, it was perfect for looking at the sky, Akko had spent a lot of time lying on hills watching the sunset and sun rise, but better than that was at night when she could gaze upon the blanket of stars the decorated the black night sky. Sometimes she would lie on the ground through the night staring up at the beauty above her. But now she was distracted from that by Diana standing over her.

"Are you okay?" the blonde asked.

"Huh? Yeah, why?"

"I saw you lying here, it seemed concerning." she explained

Akko looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I never considered that before but I suppose it does."

"What are you doing anyway?"

"watching the sunset."

"are you going back to the village afterwards?"

"maybe. I was thinking of stargazing for a while."

"oh then would you mind if I joined you?"

"nope go ahead"

Diana smiles sitting beside Akko before the dim sunlight still grasping the horizon.

"So what were _you_ doing out here, Diana?" she asked once Diana had gotten comfortable.

"oh I was… just walking, there's nothing like this around my old home, so I decided to enjoy the green pastures."

"Do you like them? I love the moors, there's so much space to run, and no one to tell you it's a waste of time"

"ah yes suppose the moorland is quite nice. I think I prefer the forest though"

"I love them both, I just love being outside."

"it is quite refreshing"

They continued chatting as the sky darkened and stars faded into view and when they ran out of things to say the conversation naturally stopped leaving them to just lay down beside each other, looking up at the sky in meaningful silence.

After what must have been hours, the crescent moon was high in the sky and Akko felt contented with the time spent there, she sat up and looked to Diana. _She's fallen asleep,_ she thought, smiling down at Diana, who looked so peaceful in that moment. Akko knew she couldn't just leave Diana there, she was new and might get lost or something, so she considered here options:

She could stay there for the night,

She could wake Diana up and walk back together,

or she could carry Diana back.

Akko didn't want to stay any longer, and though she knew she should probably just wake Diana up, she just couldn't do that to her friend when she seemed to be sleeping so deeply. So that meant she would be carrying Diana back. That's fine, there's not really any hills on the way and they aren't that far from town, this can work. She took a lot of care sliding her arms under the sleeping friend and standing up very slowly so she doesn't wake her. Diana was quite light, though Akko wasn't surprised, she was a rather thin girl. So Akko could make it across the fields quite easily considering she was carrying a person with her. By the time they were in the village Akko was exhausted anyway and so putting Diana down on her bed was quite a relief and Akko stood for a moment to catch her breath.

Diana felt herself hit the bed and she instantly felt a little panic as she had to work out what was going on. Then she opened her eyes a little and saw Akko and anxiety shot though her like an arrow. She scanned around her room to clarify this was her room and once she had that confirmed she looked at what in her room was visible and sighed in relief seeing her room looked like any other. The sigh caught Akko's attention.

"S-sorry, did I wake you?" Akko asked before the blonde had a chance to form a question for Akko

"I suppose so, it's okay though. Might I ask you what's going on?"

"you fell asleep on the moors, you looked so peaceful and sweet, I didn't want to wake you up so I carried you home." Akko explains

"You carried me?!"

"was that bad? Should I have woken you up?"

"No, thanks for trying not to wake me, I'm just surprised you both tried and succeeded at carrying me all that way"

"I do a lot more running and such than the average girl in thie place so I suppose I'm stronger than you might expect. Though even so I was quite tired when I got you here. Speaking of which I better go get some sleep, thanks for earlier, it was fun talking to you, bye." and with that Akko left.

"goodnight Akko" Diana said then settled down to get back to sleep, with the same content smile she'd worn all night.

 **So that was chapter 2. I probably wrote it mostly because of fluff but that's the reason for at least 50% of fanfiction I'm pretty sure. I have quite a bit to add in, not sure if ill do it next chapter or split them up but it's coming soon either way so look forward to that I guess. Thanks for reading :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Oh boy, this is gonna get intense.**

Akko rolled around frustratedly. It was one of _those_ nights, Sleep certainly wasn't coming to her. She sighs and sits up considering what to do. After running over the list of things she does on sleepless nights she slides out of her covers and puts a cloak on over her dress before heading to the forest edge.

It wasn't abnormal for Akko to struggle to sleep and she regularly visited the clearing at such a late hour. Yet all the experience in the world couldn't prepare her for what she witnessed. First she thought she was seeing things, green sparks being carried though the forest? Impossible. It must have been her tired mind making things up to entertain her. But when she got to the clearing there was no other explanation, this was real.

At first she stood, just behind a tree at the edge of the clearing, jaw dropped. In the clearing that she had gone to so many times Akko witnessed a sight impossible to forget.

There were trails of misty, green sparkles swirling everywhere like a beautiful hurricane swallowing the space in a glowing display. Then she noticed some of the glowing mist clustering into separate clouds, then morphing into dazzling images, a butterfly, a deer, a rabbit, a kitten. Then the images became animated, the butterfly fluttered excitedly, deer wildly galloped, rabbit sat looking around observantly tapping the ground with one foot, and the kitten was stumbling as it patted at the spectacular, sparkling dust with its soft front paw.

Lost for words all Akko could do was gasp.

Diana turned to where she swore she just heard a noise.

Even more indescribable than the wondrous display Akko had just witnessed was the look of horror? Anger? Fear? that was displayed on the blondes face when she turned to see Akko staring at her. The images faded away and the brilliant mist fell to the grass and disappeared.

Akko finally caught up with herself and immediately walked into full view from the clearing. Diana turned ready to run but Akko dashed to her and grabbed her wrist, Diana looked over her shoulder, and with a simple glance centuries of conversation were exchanged between the pair.

They never spoke a word for a long time before Akko broke the silence.

"You're a-a witch?" she spoke softly

Diana swallowed before replying.

"yes, I am a witch" her voice was barely more than a whisper

"You're spectacular!"

Whatever Diana expected it wasn't that.

"I'm- What?"

"I've never seen anything more amazing." Akko smiled

"So… you- you don't- don't hate-" she began.

"no! I could never!"

" _how?_ "

"It's a bit of a story, can we sit first?"

Diana nodded and they sat side by side. She flicked her wand to produce a weak glow between them.

"well," Akko started "when I was little there was this girl, a few years older than me, in the village. She was a witch. She was hiding it pretty well, no one knew until discovered by someone in the town. And when that happened everyone suddenly turned against against her, but I didn't. Being such a little child I didn't hate witched like all the adults, I sought her out one day and asked her to show me some magic and she agreed, she told me that she actually wanted to show people magic openly, she wanted to bring a new name to witchcraft, something to dazzle and excite people, but it's hard to do when magic is punishable by death. She said that she was glad I wanted to see it because it was a sign of progress. She showed me some magic she could do and it was brilliant! The best thing I've ever seen but..." Akko looks down, fiddling with the edge of her cloak, "one day I couldn't find her and I asked my mum where she was, sh-she said that she had disappeared, like it was normal, b-but the other village children said that- that she was put to d-death." tears steamed down her cheeks like salty waterfalls, running down her neck and soaking into her dress.

Diana wasn't really sure what to do when Akko started crying, she paused for a while then did the best thing she could think of and gave her wand a little twitch. A soft glow changed into the shape of a small creature, it had a kind of human shape but its head was large and it had a rather innocent, childlike charm to it. Following the directions of Diana's wand it climbed onto Akko's shoulder and tapped her on the cheek. Akko turned to look at it and gave a weak smile as it wiped her tears then hugged her as best such a tiny thing could until Akko had calmed down. Diana flicked her wand and it disappeared.

After a while of silence Akko realised something.

"You came here, to this village, to run away didn't you? You were running away from the witch trials right?" The look on Diana's face was enough of an answer "Just curious, why did you pick this village?"

"well, I'd never heard of it, which made it ideal, such a disconnected place, I was hoping that they wouldn't even know about the witch trials so I'd seem less suspicious but alas, they do so I've just tried to be careful, I think I was doing alright until you caught me."

"I agree, I don't think anyone in the village would suspect you of _witchcraft._ "

"I can hope." she said with a sigh

"I can help."

"huh?"

"well really it's more that I can't not help"

"what can you do?"

"be your friend. You'll blend in more that way, and I'm sure plenty of the village people will befriend you eventually, I'll just speed that up!"

"I suppose that makes sense, thank you Akko."

"it's okay, like I just said I can't not help now that I know. Oh I have another question!"

"go on…"

"have you ever bewitched a person?"

"no I-"

"good" Akko grins.

"why?"

"because that means I know that when I kiss you it's genuine" Akko says far too simply. When Diana catches on her eyes widen but as she about to speak Akko's lips stop the words. Diana's mind starts racing almost as fast as her sprinting heart beat with the touch. After a few moments Akko pulled back, smiling still.

"sorry maybe I should have asked first" Akko says looking down slightly.

"it's okay, I-I liked it" Diana manages to stutter out pathetically

"well that's some relief. I've kinda wanted to do that for a while now"

"it's only been a few days since I got here" Diana mentions, smiling a little as well.

"yeah I kinda wanted to do that from the get-go. Something about you."

"I get it, I guess you do the same for me"

"then how about another" she says leaning in while they wear matching grins. This kiss was quite a bit morethan the last one, they both held their heads on a slight tilt so their lips fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. Diana leant back on to her hands as Akko pushed the kiss deeper and twisted around, putting one leg over to the other side of the blonde. The kiss held for a while and, one they were both satisfied, they mutually ended the kiss, touching noses before pulling away, now with Akko sitting on Diana's knee facing her.

"gosh a witch _and_ a lesbian, do you do anything lawfully?" Akko joked.

"you say that like you aren't also a lesbian" she retorts earning a giggle from Akko

"we can be lesbians together!" she says

"speaking of such, where are we going from here"

"well we obviously can't be open about it, but we can meet in secret like this night except planned."

"but couldn't someone else catch us here?"

"In my many years of going here at night when I can't sleep this is the first time I have ever found anyone else here"

"so that's why you were out here"

"oh yeah I guess I forgot to mention with all that's happened but yeah I couldn't sleep so I came out here, it helps some nights to just lie out here, don't know why. Though I think, after this, sleep tonight isn't happening"

"would you like a sleeping potion?"

Akko's eye's light up.

"yes! That sounds amazing"

"its just a potion that causes instant fatigue to those who consume it. I happen to have a large supply right now because this is a new place I was concerned I may have trouble sleeping," she pulls a small bottle out of he pocket, "this is one portion, keep the bottle out of sight and return it to me tomorrow after midnight at this clearing okay?"

"got it!" Akko says, "see you tomorrow then?"

"indeed"

Akko kisses Diana on the cheek and dashes off.

Once home Akko immediately sits on top of her blankets, removes her cloak, and drinks the potion. She immediately feels like she hasn't slept for weeks and she collapses on top of the blankets, her final thought being _it worked_!

 **Done! This chapter is definitely one I was looking forward to! I'm quite happy with it but I'm always open to constructive criticism so feel free to send that in reviews, also prompts are totally welcome. (also just in case anyone cares: I know lesbian is a new term that wouldn't be used I that time period but I don't know what else works so if you can't offer a good word for them that fits with that time then I'll keep using lesbian.)**


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